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Ishtar’s Descent describes the netherworld as a dark house where the dead dwell in dust and nothing escapes. 1 Enoch 21 draws on this tradition, reshaping it to describe a fiery abyss where rebellious angels are imprisoned forever.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Ishtar's Descent to the Netherworld I
Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld
Ancient Near East
To the Netherworld, the Land of No Return, Istar, the daughter of Sin, set her mind. Indeed, the daughter of Sin set her mind to the dark house, the dwelling of Irkalla, to the house which none leaves who enters, to the road where traffic is one-way, to the house, whose dwellers thirst for light, where dust is their food, clay their bread. They see no light, they dwell in darkness, clothed like birds in garments of feather. Over the door and the bolt dust has settled, over the door beam a deathly silence has sunk.
Date: 2300 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
1 Enoch 21:7
Pseudepigrapha
6 These are of the number of the stars of heaven, which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and are bound here until ten thousand years, the time entailed by their sins, are consummated.' 7 And from there I went to another place, which was still more horrible than the former, and I saw a horrible thing: a great fire there which burned and blazed, and the place was cleft as far as the abyss, being full of great descending columns of fire: neither its extent or magnitude could I see, nor could I conjecture. 8 Then I said: 'How fearful is the place and how terrible to look upon!' 9 Then Uriel answered me, one of the holy angels who was with me, and said unto me: 'Enoch, why do you have such fear and fright?' And I answered: 'Because of this fearful place, and because of the spectacle of the pain.' 10 And he said to me: 'This place is the prison of the angels, and here they will be imprisoned forever.'
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Notes and References
“… There are not many clues provided, though, about the location of the watchers’ prison from the parallel tradition in 1 Enoch 21:7–10. Since the story of the watchers, their sins, and punishment plays a significant role earlier in the Book of the Watchers, we may find other clues in the Enochic corpus about the place of incarceration. In 1 Enoch 10:11–12, the angels, following the destruction of their offspring, will be bound under hills for seventy generation until their time of judgment. From there they shall be led to an abyss of fire which will serve as their prison for all eternity (1 Enoch 10:13). It not clear from this tradition, though, where the pit is to be found. Similar accounts of the angels’ prison are found elsewhere in the Enochic corpus. The Similitudes also feature a place of imprisonment for Azazel and fellow angels: a deep valley of burning fire (1 Enoch 54:1–6). Charles identifies the place as the Valley of Hinnom in Jerusalem, also referred to as Gehenna. More reminiscent of 1 Enoch 18:11 is the description of the watchers’ prison as a pit full of pillars of fire. …”
Bautch, Kelley Coblentz
A Study of the Geography of 1 Enoch 17-19: “No One Has Seen What I Have Seen.”
(p. 87, 138) Brill, 2003
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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